Thursday, February 26, 2004

8/11/2006; 2:34:33 AM

When cameras are everywhere ... This is an amazing article, with a link to a web site that shows just how advanced criminals are becoming ... and how they are leveraging technology.

The concept is simple as described below ... what is wild is that they are using some fairly simple technologies to accomplish this. Just the other night I saw an episode of Law & Order where a high school student took pictures of other students in the gym locker room ... with her cell phone ... and then sent them to other people. I hadn't even thought about the portability of these "wireless cameras". This all makes me think about where we are heading when miniature cameras can be carried and left just about anywhere. And people are thinking that we can protect privacy?

ATM Skimmers with Wireless Cameras, Pickups. Automated Teller Machine customers now robbed wirelessly without knowledge: The University of Texas at Austin police have a compelling page that shows how a skimmer (which scans ATM cards before they're inserted into the ATM) and a wireless camera in an innocuous position nearby can steal a card and the PIN. The skimmer reads the magnetic stripe; the camera can see the PIN being entered. The thieves park nearby and retrieve the information wirelessly. This is reminiscent of last month's story of a wireless Israeli post office money heist. It may be just me, but after years of being warned about shoulder surfers in the 1980s and 1990s, I often cover my hand when entering a PIN on a phone or ATM. I guess my paranoia pays off. Also, I only go to one bank's ATM machines, which are uniform. I think I'd notice a weird add-on.... [Wi-Fi Networking News]

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About Me

I'm a hard core computer technologist and futurist. I participate in a variety of business and technology conferences, I've done numerous start-ups. I still program, and I install and maintain all of my own servers, and have built out my own wireless network in the valley where I live. I own a variety of wearable computers and head-mounted displays, and am now moving into Tablet PCs. I am really into the abstractions of computer systems, and don't have much religion about technology.